The maniacal Clown Prince of Crime is finally cured of his insanity and tries to right his wrongs by saving Gotham City from Batman!

On the gates of Arkham Asylum, a Batmobile stops by and a person comes out of it to meet a patient, Batman. The guards escort him inside and as they update the man named Jack Napier about The Dark Knight, he simply asks the imprisoned vigilante to help him.

Flashback to a year prior, The Joker was on the run as Batman was chasing him in his Batmobile throughout the city with Batgirl at his side. During the pursuit, the clown makes him endanger public life by making him recklessly go through construction sites and rooftops. Nightwing saves a worker on the go and even one security guard was knocked off by the Bat when he was fanatically chasing the clown.

Following a brief taunting, these two arch-enemies start a fight in an empty building of the industrial district where the clown argues about the duality of their relationship and how his sanity is kept in check by fighting crime. At one point he pushes Batman too far pointing out the tragedy of his life and the young sidekicks only to be beaten more viciously.

The Joker takes out some pills he believes will cure him and the Caped Crusader shoved the whole package down his throat in front of GCPD, Jim Gordon, Det. Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya, effectively leaving him chocked while a woman filmed the scene.

The city breaks out in two fractions; some arguing over condemning Batman after the Hail Mary chase he put throughout Gotham and some still believing in him after the video of their fight was leaked and gone viral. Even Gordon and Bullock argues on whether they are on the right side before Batgirl arrives to check on the condition of the clown.

Bruce is confronted by Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon in Wayne Manor about his recent display of near-psychotic fits of rage, because his behavior doesn't seem alright. He then opens a secret door to passage downstairs where they see a dying Alfred Pennyworth lying on a bed and Bruce has enlisted the help of Victor Fries AKA Mister Freeze.

While he is deeply upset about his father-figure lying in a dying state, he goes back to check on Joker and then leaves abruptly. Jim Gordon meets the mayor in City Hall and Doctor Leslie Thompkins gives her report on the patient, Jack Napier has recovered and fully sane now. Although Gordon suspects that he is faking it, Leslie confirms him it to be otherwise.

Batman – White Knight | Comics

With his newfound sanity, he is also working full-time on his legal case to file charges against Batman and GCPD. In a meeting with the cops, he gets out of his handcuffs and calmly explains how he can pin charges against them if he wants by going to trial, which he will win and claims that he is going to save Gotham from Batman as its White Knight.

In his trial, Jack Napier opens up about his recovery and how he was always a criminal who started with a bank robbery but was accused of committing murder or at least, the police never could show any evidence and been labeled as a super-criminal anyway.

He accuses the gatekeepers of Gotham to use his unstable mental condition as an excuse to scare the taxpaying Gothamites and used him as a source of revenue. With that, he walks free from trial due to lack of evidence and vows to eradicate vigilantism from the city.

He then goes back to Harley Quinn and although joyous to see him, she is almost immediately disgusted to see him not a psycho in makeup anymore. Napier apologizes to her for his years of abuse and negligence before proposing to marry her to make things right. She gut-punched him to the floor, only get kicked off by Harleen Quinzel.

It seems Harley left long ago and now came back to take him back with Bud and Lou. They catch up on their old days that are full of excitement but she was always blindsided by his obsession with The Dark Knight. Things went too far when Harley found him torturing Robin down in their basement and contacted Batman to get help without delay.

He beats down the maniac with an inch of his life before sending him to Arkham but they never found Jason Todd, ever. Even Napier couldn't remember what he really did to the Boy Wonder as The Joker. He wants to move on asks her help to rebuild Gotham together.

He calls for a meeting of his former colleagues including Baby Doll, Bane, Killer Croc, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Roxy Rocket, Scarecrow, Scarface/Ventriloquist, The Riddler and Two Face only to trick them into becoming his mind-controlled puppets with hat of Mad Hatter, by using Clayface as a signal conduit for a grand scheme to frame the Caped Crusader.

As planned, he unleashed an army of super-villains on the streets and police gave them chase before the Bat-Family arrived on scene. Wrecking havoc throughout the city, they are lured to the planned site of a library for Backport and it collapsed onto Batman. He came out badly injured and his life was saved at a great cost of a loved one.

Refusing to let go of the chance for Jack Napier to embrace The Joker persona once again, the Harley pretender suits up in an all-new avatar to get her lover back and finds out about the scheme Jack is playing and with help from Hatter, she managed to turn the tables.

Apparently, the pretender was a depressed banker named Marian Drews, who met The Joker during a bank robbery and became a part of his life. Now that he is gone, she intends to get him back and debuts as Neo Joker. She unleashes a crisis on Gotham that even Jack Napier sees no other way to save the city without the help of his archenemy.

For more information on this limited series, you can check out the link below.

The long-running debate regarding the vigilante methods of Batman has crossed a few lines and it helped The Joker/Jack Napier to portray as a villain. Harleen Quinzel also played an important role to the overall plot and a huge ensemble of villains from Gotham showed up for a major clash with the Bat-Family and members of GCPD.

Unexpected Peace Offering

A fine nod to the poorly received Batman and Robin movie from 1997 and "The Dark Knight Returns" graphic novel are probably there regarding the fate of the trusted Wayne family butler Alfred Pennyworth. Pivotal elements from another popular storyline, "A Death in the Family" subtly played an influence for the ongoing Batman/Joker antagonism over the undisclosed fate of Jason Todd and unveiled new twist.

It appears that, Murphy took great inspiration from the popular TV show of 90's, Batman: The Animated Series and some classic characters like Baby Doll, Roxy Rocket and Veronica Vreeland appeared in the story, reimagined with almost same appearance resembling to the series. The sleek and edgy drawing style of Murphy was an overall refresher and was very well suited match to the dark tone of the story.
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